Heads up: some academic research taking place

[RowanMumsnet]

Hello

Some researchers from a UK university are going to be collecting posts from some boards on Mumsnet over the next few weeks. They will be looking only at posts published from this point onwards. Selected posts will be anonymised (ie usernames will not be stored anywhere), and all processes will be GDPR-compliant.

EDITED BY MNHQ: to be clear, NO private or back-end data is being shared with the researchers and they will have NO access to any extra information about users. They will only be analysing published posts, ie things that are already in the public domain.

The researchers will analyse the text of the anonymised posts as part of their study. The full text of these anonymised posts will not be reproduced in the study - no pieces of text that make you or your situation identifiable will be published.

Once the study is complete, the database containing the anonymised posts will be destroyed.

Obviously we'd love to tell you what the study is about - but we can't because it will skew the results. However once the research has been completed we'll share it with you and you can read all about it. The academics running the study are people we've worked with before, and the topic is one we think lots of MN users will agree is interesting and useful.

IMPORTANT BIT: if you DO NOT want your posts to be considered for inclusion in the research, please shout here on this thread or email us on [email protected]

And of course let us know if you have any questions and we'll see if we can answer them.

Thanks

MNHQ

Would be interesting to know whether MNers think in a future scenario we should do the same thing (ie start a thread to let you know)?

I think once you know this is being done, you have a clear moral duty to inform your users.

It may also be (lawyers/GDPR specialists) that you have a legal duty to inform us. (Though I think in your terms and conditions, IIRC, there is a bit saying copyright of our posts passes to MN, for you to do with as you please, including passing them to third parties).

The words the researchers are analysing are words already in the public domain.

They could start the research tomorrow and you’d be none the wiser. Anyone could. I could start a project and wouldn’t have to tell MN or users about it. *Because it’s using words that you have already chosen to put out in the public domain.”

They can’t tell you exactly what the topic is as it would skew the results. For example, let’s say the topic was healthy eating, some posters with strong views could then use this opportunity to post their strong views at every chance, giving an unbalanced set of results.

Why oh why aren’t people understanding this??

I’d like to opt out please

I want to be excluded from it. Thank you.

I think the problem here is that people are using an old model of research ethics (being a 'proper' participant, seeking individual consent, giving lots of information about the study) with a new type of data- which is completely public and publically analyzable at any time. MN and the researchers are being polite by maintaining this fiction, knowing proportionally a few people will opt out, but given it's all public anonymous data anyway, they don't actually have to do that.

I see analysis of websites like Reddit or online newspapers in academic papers all the time.

You can't even say you had an expectation of privacy on Mumsnet. The antics of the Daily Mail means everyone on the site knows their words are public and can be used by other agencies willy nilly. It's not reasonable to have an expectation of privacy on this site at all.

I think this is also an age thing, when I've run ethics classes with students they are astonished anyone would think they have a right to privacy on a public website. They take the 'if you put it into the public domain, anyone in public can use it' attitude. Less so with my own older generation.

I'm not going to opt out.

I also think the design is fine, if you are interested in discourse analysis or something like that. You can be interested in what patterns of speech or concepts people use to explain things without knowing their demographics and you certainly don't need a control group to do that because it's not a controlled experiment. Mumsnet 'demographic' in the broadest sense is actually fairly well identified by advertisers anyway.

Why oh why aren’t people understanding this??

The questions have been around non public data or removed data. They were not addressed in the initial posting so it wasn't possible to "understand" how those categories were being addressed.

Please don't include me.

"They can’t tell you exactly what the topic is as it would skew the results."

Results are already skewed, as I and others explained below.

@Orchiddingme and @RuleBreaker are spot on: anyone who uses Internet fora, Twitter, Reddit, Facebook - basically, anything that generates Big Data - may very well already have been "used" in this way. Anonymous posts are a big growth area of social science research (though I don't use it myself) and researchers have been data scraping for years to this end.

Take this as a reminder that nothing you put on line is private, and very little is anonymous.

I don't want to be in the research thanks

Exclude my posts please.

I don't expect privacy on Mumsnet, but isn't that why it's anonymous?

I’m opting out too.

Count me out please.

If it's about a parenting issue, I don't post about those much anyway. Only in passing on a couple of long running _Chat threads.

karyatide presumably though you felt your research was ethical otherwise you wouldn't have put it forward though? And similar to previous research?

Just because an ethics committee don't agree with something doesn't make it unethical. They tend to find it hard to know what to do with already existing social media data as it's not similar to other types of data which the researcher produces themselves.

@C8H10N4O2

Why oh why aren’t people understanding this??

The questions have been around non public data or removed data. They were not addressed in the initial posting so it wasn't possible to "understand" how those categories were being addressed.

We've edited the OP now to make this clearer - thanks

And thanks also to those opting out - we'll add your names

If only the research focused on the foaming hotbed of transphobia in the so-called "Feminism chat" that Mumsnet HQ is so indifferent towards.

Why oh why do posters think that by adding "fuck the Daily Mail" that their comments won't be lifted? Makes me cringe every time I read it.
So anyone can do any research or make public on any comments that you have put into the public domain (which you agreed to in the t&c when you signed up with MN) but now that MN have actually asked you if you would like to be excluded it is suddenly all about privacy and posters are getting funny about it!

Isn't this batshit crazy or am I missing something?

Please add me to the list to be excluded. Thanks @MNHQ

Lizzie genuine question - why are you so bothered? Anyone can do any research on anything that you have posted on MN. You wouldn't necessarily know about it. So why post on MN if you don't want to take that risk?
Not being goady at all - been on MN a looong time myself and raged about various changes but this seems ridiculous
Fuck the Daily Mail, because that will stop them quoting me obviously

Am happy to be included - it's in the public domain already once I've posted it on the internet for all to see!

foaming hotbed of transphobia

< hollow laugh >

I don't want to be included in this unethical research.